Motor cortex plasticity during forced-use therapy in stroke patients: a preliminary study.

Treatment-induced plastic changes were investigated in the brains of stroke patients in the subacute stage of illness. Nine patients participated in 1 week of conventional physiotherapy. In the subsequent week conventional physiotherapy was combined with forced-use therapy.

Training-induced changes of motor cortex representations in stroke patients.

Objective: To study changes in motor cortex representations after a single session of physiotherapy in stroke patients.

Methods: TMS mapping was used to evaluate the motor output map of the abductor pollicis brevis (APB) in both hemispheres. Stroke patients (4-8 weeks after the infarction) were studied prior to a training session aimed at improving dexterity and 1 h and 1 day after the training.

Stoichiometry of potassium channel opener action.

Potassium channel openers (KCOs; e.g., P1075, pinacidil) exert their effects on excitable cells by opening ATP-sensitive potassium channels.

Identification of the potassium channel opener site on sulfonylurea receptors.

Diversity of sulfonylurea receptor (SUR) subunits underlies tissue specific pharmacology of K(ATP) channels, which represent critical regulators of electrical activity in numerous cells. Notably, the neuronal/pancreatic beta-cell receptor, SUR1, imparts high sensitivity to hypoglycemic sulfonylureas (SUs; e.g.

Stoichiometry of sulfonylurea-induced ATP-sensitive potassium channel closure.

Hypoglycemic sulfonylureas (e.g., glibenclamide, glipizide, and tolbutamide) exert their stimulatory effect on excitatory cells by closure of ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channels.